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Approvals

Four purchasing documents can stop for signatures — a purchase order before it is sent, a supplier bill before it is approved and posted, a payment run before the bank batch is exported, and a supplier change before new bank details apply. They all climb the same ladder: a rule decides whether a document stops and whose signatures it needs, the signatures are collected in order, the people whose turn it is are told and chased, and the buying desk sees what is waiting under Inventory → Approvals. There is no company-wide decisions page; each department surfaces its own. Nothing is ever approved by the clock.

What stops for a signature​

The rules live on the Approval rules card at Settings → Sales & CRM → Quotes. Each rule says which document kinds it applies to, the facts it tests, and what happens when they all hold. Rules are an ordered list; the first active rule whose criteria all hold decides, so put the exceptions above the catch-alls and use the card's tester to see which rule a given document would meet.

  • The facts come from the document itself: the total (in the control room's currency or the document's), the supplier, the billing entity, and per kind the things that matter — an order's categories, job, destination (store or van) and whether a supplier quote is attached; a bill's price variance, unmatched lines, possible-duplicate flag and whether it belongs to an order; a run's number of bills and suppliers, whether any supplier's bank details are unverified and whether any bill is part-paid; a supplier change's kind (bank details or a new supplier) and whether it has been verified by phone.
  • What a rule does: route the document through a ladder of up to ten levels, each a named person or Anyone with Approve purchase orders; approve automatically; or send it straight back with the rule's reason.
  • When no rule matches, the control room's default applies — approve automatically, or one signature from anyone with Approve purchase orders. Two kinds keep their own meaning without a rule: a bill submitted by an approver is approved by that submission (anyone else gets a one-signature ladder), and a supplier change always takes one signature from someone other than the requester.

How a document climbs the ladder​

Submit starts a round: the first level opens, and the sheet's ladder card shows every level in order — who it is with, who signed and when, and any note. Each signature opens the next level; the last one approves the document. Comments on the sheet stay with the document across rounds.

  • Who may sign a level: the person it names, their delegate for today (delegations are set on the Approval rules card, from one person to another between two dates), the person it was escalated to, or — for a level open to anyone — whoever holds Approve purchase orders. Owners and company admins may sign any level as an override, which asks for a reason and is recorded as one.
  • Your own document: whether an approver may sign what they raised is the control room's approve own setting. A supplier change never approves itself, whatever the setting.
  • Send back at any level asks what needs to change and returns the document with the note — an order to its raiser as a draft, a bill to matching, a run to a draft, a supplier change to its requester. Resubmitting starts a new round: every level signs afresh, and the record keeps the earlier rounds.
  • Editing while pending: an order whose lines change while it waits restarts its round; a header-only change does not. A bill's matches are locked while it waits.

Being told, reminded, escalated​

The moment a level opens, the people who can sign it are told — a push nudge on the phone for anyone linked to the CleverAlert or CleverTech app, and an email on the control room's sender identity with Approve and Send back buttons that open a personal, single-use confirmation page. A level that sits unanswered gets a reminder, then an escalation to the next level's approver, the absent approver's delegate, or the owners and admins — the hours and the target are dials on the Approval rules card. An escalation widens who may sign; it never signs. The full detail is under Purchasing → Being told.

The Approvals tab​

Inventory → Approvals lists Yours to sign (with Approve and Send back on each row), Waiting on others (where an owner or admin also sees Override), and what was signed or sent back in the last fortnight. Its red chip and the number on Inventory in the sidebar count only documents whose open level is yours — named, delegated or escalated to you; an override that is merely possible is offered, never counted. Rows are marked Order, Bill, Payment run or Supplier change, a supplier change not yet verified is flagged, and the list moves when someone else signs. On a phone the rows stack and the two decisions become full-width buttons. See Purchasing → Approvals and On the phone.

What each kind needs before it can be signed​

  • Purchase orders — a draft with lines; Submit for approval on the order sheet. Approved orders are then sent to the supplier.
  • Supplier bills — matched first; Submit for approval on the bill sheet. A bill with unmatched lines can only be approved from its sheet, where the approver accepts them knowingly.
  • Payment runs — built from approved bills for one pay date; see Paying suppliers. The bank batch cannot be exported until the run is approved.
  • Supplier changes — new bank details are refused for signature until someone other than the requester has phoned the supplier on a number already on file and recorded the call; see Bank details through a request. A supplier can propose their own details through the order link; the request goes through exactly the same call and signature.

The report​

Performance → Reports → Purchasing approvals is one table over a chosen range, in three stacked scopes. All documents first, then one row per document kind, then one per person. Each row counts the levels signed and sent back in the range, how many were signed as delegate, after an escalation or as an override, the median and longest hours a level waited before it was signed, and what is waiting right now — open now and past the reminder. For a person, the open counts cover only levels that name them; a level open to anyone with Approve purchase orders is nobody's until it is signed, so it shows under its kind and under All. CSV or PDF, like every report on Export & reports.

Permissions​

Approve purchase orders signs open levels, can be named on a level, sends documents back and approves bills; Manage stock & warehouse raises, sends, receives and captures; Pay suppliers builds and exports payment runs. Owners hold all three and, with company admins, may override any level with a reason. The exact split is under Purchasing → Settings and permissions.